3 Years AK (After Kyuubi)
It wasn't long before people noticed that entire mobs of people were disappearing into what had come to be known as 'The Fox's Den.' This didn't stop drunks and groups hell-bent on enacting 'justice' from invading the apartment complex though. The mobs and attacks did not stop until one night a mob went in, and hours later, a single survivor came running out the front doors screaming bloody murder. As a crowd gathered around the man, he went into a fit, clawing at the wall of a building while screaming about imps, demons, and hellish samurai. There were bloody claw marks adorning the wall when the Konoha Military Police arrived and carried the man away. As far as everyone knew, the man was sitting in a nice, padded room to this day.
Most people took the crazy man's words as the ramblings of a madman, believing that the fox brat was protected by elite ninja (it was not unheard of for ninja to drive civilians insane with nightmarish illusions) or that the Kyuubi was playing with his victims. However, there were those who took the survivor's words literally. One person in particular could be found sitting in an empty room before a roaring fire, a walking cane held in his one good hand.
A sharp crack sounded as the cane rapped against the stone floor. The man waited until the sharp retort stopped echoing through the chamber. "Observe and report on the Fox's Den. Be wary while on site. Several retired chunin-level and higher ninja have gone missing there. Do not be seen. Do not interfere in any way. Now, go!"
The black-clad ninja kneeling before the man struck his chest with a closed fist before vanishing in a swirl of leaves, the blank expanse of his white mask the last to go.
Saeta Asashin, rogue ninja formerly of the Hidden Mist Village of Kirigakure, was sorely regretting taking on an assassination mission from that shifty looking Leaf civilian, but to be honest, the money was too good to pass up. As a rogue ninja, more colloquially known as a missing-nin, Saeta often had to live with the bare minimum between missions, going without more often than not. So, when a civilian had approached the rogue with an exorbitant amount of cash in exchange for assassinating some brat, he had agreed. He hadn't been looking forward to killing a child, but ninja, especially rogue ninja, couldn't really afford to be picky, not with that much money on the line.
It had all started out so well too. Having been smuggled in through a smuggler's tunnel under the massive walls surrounding the Leaf Village, it was child's play for the missing-nin to avoid the patrols. Arriving at the apartment building complex, entry was as simple as walking in through the front door. All was going according to schedule; right up until Saeta turned a corner and found himself face to mask with several heavily armored figures with just as many squat, black creatures gathered around their feet. Letting loose a lightning technique that left several of the metal men twitching and spasming on the ground, Saeta turned on his heels and fled down the corridor, the mass of armor clanking after him.
Cursing his employer for leaving out the fact that a veritable army resided in the apartment complex, Saeta took a corner at speed, pushing off the wall to avoid a crash. Several of the armored Heartless were not so lucky, piling up on each other as they crashed into the corner. The rest of the Heartless followed Saeta's example and bounced off the wall in their pursuit.
Smirking at the pile-up behind him, Saeta flashed through several hand seals, firing off a fire technique at the wall in front of him to make an exit from which to escape. Unfortunately for the rogue, he found out the hard way that it hadn't worked when he jumped through the smoke, and crashed into the wall.
Staggering back a step, Saeta glared at the wall with watering eyes as he gingerly held his broken nose. Noticing the faint glimmering patterns on the wall, Saeta cursed silently. 'Shit, shit, shit. Seals! Shit! I've gotta get to a window or something before I—yipe!'
Having momentarily forgotten about his pursuers, Saeta barely managed to dodge the swinging sword of the lead knight. Landing, the rogue snapped out with a sidekick to send the knight crashing into the rest of the pack, knocking them all over like bowling pins. Not waiting for the armored devils to get up, Saeta dashed off down the hallway.
Looking over his shoulder, Saeta was surprised when he saw that the knights and Shadows had stopped chasing him. Turning back to his front, Saeta's eyes shot wide with terror. Before he could so much as scream, the rogue nin was rent into bloody bits by a wall of surging black chains. All that was left, was a bloodied and scratched forehead protector and a pink floating Heart.
Kushina contemplated the heart floating before her as the last of her black chains retracted back into her body. Dismissing the Shadows and the Armored Knights and Samurai, Kushina thought of how to mold this particular heart.
In the three years since the Kyuubi had been released and subsequently sealed into her baby boy, there had been many attacks on her new home and family. As a result, they had had many Hearts with which to experiment with. Living Statues, murderous plants, and armored lancers who didn't really get along with their lances were amongst the newest types of Heartless.
Interestingly, it was discovered that the few Yamanakas and Naras converted, both from clans notorious for techniques that let the users take over an enemy's body, became bodiless balls of shadow with a knack for possessing inanimate objects. Another thing that had come as a surprise was that eating the hearts allowed the Heartless to grow stronger until they split off into two identical clones.
"Mama, I bored."
Blinking, Kushina averted attention from the Heart, looking down to find her precocious three year old staring up at her. The crimson skinned Heartless was perplexed, and rightly so. It had been her turn to take out intruders while it was Minato's turn to watch Naruto in his playroom, which was on the other end of the compound. Before Kushina could ask about it though, Naruto's eyes caught the sight of the floating Heart.
"Shiny!"
Kushina watched in surprise as the Heart drifted into Naruto's outstretched hands, her heart almost stopping (metaphorically speaking, of course.) when her precious baby momentarily glowed red with the Kyuubi's chakra. As she moved to stifle the caustic youki, she was brought to a halt as the Heart was engulfed in a miniature storm of roiling shadow and darkness. Soon, the churning ball of shadow and darkness was replaced with something else.
"Mama, Mama, look, I make friend! He a sold-er!"
Kushina nodded as she took in the Heartless in her only son's hands. It was a small Heartless, only coming halfway up her torso. On its body was a blue-green jumpsuit with the Heartless crest on it, the gloved fingers ending in red claws; while on its feet were an almost comical pair of pointed shoes. It head was concealed by a helmet topped with a scraggly-looking plume, a pair of glowing yellow eyes showing through the open conical visor that threatened to slam shut with the slightest movement.
Looking between the ecstatic toddler and the new-born Heartless Soldier, Kushina suggested to that he should go show his new friend to his father. Beaming, Naruto nodded rapidly, before disappearing in a vortex of dark shadows.
Staring at the spot her baby had just been, Kushina tried to come to terms with the fact that her son had just used the same portal that the Heartless used, despite being human. While at least the question of how Naruto had gotten away from Minato had been answered, Kushina knew that that fact would prove to be a handful in the future. Sighing internally, Kushina bent over and picked up the scratched-out Kiri forehead protector that had been left behind.
The blank-masked spy continued to kneel as he finished his report. The man in the chair picked up a cup of tea, the fire in the grate reflecting light off the fine porcelain.
"So, the child is protected by creatures of shadow created from the bodies of those they kill. And you say the child can also do so, in addition to being able to travel by shadows?"
The blank-masked ninja nodded. "Yessir!"
"I see. Have his name stricken from the list of possible candidates. If the child has protectors, it would be more trouble than it is worth to recruit him."
Taking that as his dismissal, the ninja stood, clasping a fist to his chest in salute as he bowed before vanishing. The man in the chair was left staring into the roaring fire as he sipped his tea.
"You intrigue me, Naruto Uzumaki. I shall look forward to watching your career in the future."
Sarutobi Hiruzen was almost done with the day's paperwork when a bloodied and scratched-out forehead protector from Kiri appeared on his desk in a swirl of black shadows. Groaning, he turned on the intercom.
"Hisho, can you bring me forms B-28 through F-8?"
"Of course sir."
As the intercom turned off, Hiruzen hid his face in his hands with a whimper, already dreading the additional paperwork. He was almost free! Why, oh why did the gods hate him so?